♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in foreign language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in foreign language ] [ Rapping in foreign language ] [ Speaking foreign language ] ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in foreign language ] [ Singing in foreign language ] [ Speaking foreign language ] Man: I remember everything.

[ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Singing in foreign language ] You experienced that there's maybe one song who can change the world.

[ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Singing in foreign language ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in foreign language ] Ad I do love the power of the voices when they get together.

And I think that singing together is essential for our society.

When people sing together, we are stronger as a group.

Which role did Cante play during the dictatorship?

Cante had a mixed place during the dictatorship because, as almost almost all the tradition -- singing traditions in Portugal, it was folklorized.

The state determined Cante is done by choral groups, only men, and they have to dress in this ethnographic manner.

They got these two places, one place that was dictated by the state, and the other one, which was the -- their creative side, I think, and their expressive side of singing, singing what they needed to sing.

And they were singing about their life and the difficult times they had.

And after the revolution, only -- in '79, there was -- it was founded the first group, they founded the -- the first women's group.

[ Singing in foreign language ] Cante, after the revolution, became a way for Alentejo to express themselves, and express the joy of freedom.

People nowadays, they don't feel that they can sing.

They think that singing is only for people who are singers, or people who have a "good voice," as they say.

They don't own the singing as something that they should do.

If everybody in the world can dance, everybody in the world can also sing, and should sing.

[ Singing in foreign language ] When I started to sing, to learn these songs, these traditional songs, I really started to enjoy singing.

And I discovered my voice through this singing tradition.

So, it was really a big thing for me, and it still is, because it's my main inspiration for composing.

They are my clay to -- to sculpt my new music.

♪♪ [ Singing in foreign language ] I feel so liberated, and I feel so free when I sing.

Sometimes, I'm just here and I want to sing and something else starts to happen because something comes out of my -- of me.

The voice is a really powerful instrument because it speaks to the soul of the other.

[ Singing in foreign language ] ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Rhythmic tapping ] [ Rhythmic punching ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Chuckles ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] Vasco, such a pleasure meeting you.

You brought something to the interview.

This is called a viola braguesa.

"Viola" like a guitar, and "braguesa," it's from Braga.

It's a city in the north of Portugal.

It's beautiful.

A great instrument.

♪♪ ♪♪ A new song that I'm working on.

It's "Chula de Bocage."

Chula is a traditional rhythm from Portugal.

It's like -- [ imitates ] Everybody here in Portugal knows that rhythm.

[ Rhythmic tapping ] It's the work about the city, and the identity of the city.

And I'm recording everything here.

But how did you come up with this great idea to record the city?

So, it's a way of -- of keeping the... To say, "This is the material heritage of this town, and the sounds of this town."

And realize that the city has lots more to offer than just tourism and this fantastic view.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ What would you say, where are your traditional Portuguese roots?

Every person has his own roots, even though it's not really connected or in -- at the tone of the skin.

So, you have it.

It's your own heritage.

I started with hearing bands like Sepultura, Metallica, Agnostic Front, some... And then, I just wanted to -- to play every riff, and stuff like that.

And then, one time, I went to a concert.

It was a friend of mine.

And he plays West African drumming.

And it was a turning point to me.

And I said, "Okay, I want to do that with metal and my influences."

At the same time, I wanted to play all the instruments I could put my hands on it.

Portugal was a very rich place, with rich traditions.

Slowly, I started focusing on doing -- doing it, or... picking the Portuguese instruments, and giving my own approach.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ So, would you consider yourself to be an archivist, or a keeper?

I'm just an artist that... speaks their songs, and makes music.

I think, here in Portugal, you have space for everything.

And I know people that are doing it a more traditional way.

And I'm glad they are doing that, because it's a way of keeping the tradition alive.

I think it's good to have the traditions, and to keep the traditions, but it's also good to blend them together and to make anyone feel welcome and to share all cultures together.

So... in my music, and in my work, everybody's welcome.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in Portuguese ] Until the year 2000, people used to say that fado was music for old people.

And so, when I was a little girl and a teenager, I always went to sing fado.

I was always the weirdo.

Like, I remember the other girls singing Bananarama, Spice Girls.

And I was -- Ace of Base.

Oh, my God.

Ace of Base was, like, a disease.

And I always wanted to sing fado.

So, what does fado mean to you, personally?

Eh...

It's simple.

Fado, for me, is an extension of life.

It's poetry.

And poetry, I can't understand poetry in other way besides being the story of our lives.

How would you describe the difference of the fado that you do towards the traditional fado?

One of the reasons that put my friends with my age away from fado was all of the -- the way people dressed, the way people talked, talking so serious.

And I think that... life is not like that.

I like to show people that you can do serious things, you can sing poetry, and you can be a girl from the 21st century.

I like to wear sneakers.

What's the problem of wearing my sneakers onstage?

What's the problem of having tattoos?

I'm not a woman from the '50s.

I'm a girl that, I live in this world.

[ Singing in Portuguese ] Do you think Portuguese is a difficult language to write lyrics with?

Do you find it difficult?

I think that Portuguese, it's a cold language.

A lot of people ask me, "Oh, sorry, are you Russian?"

"No.

I'm Portuguese."

And Portuguese, in fado, it's perfect.

Every language has their tunes, and Is, and downs.

Like, your language, it's quite similar with us, because it's strict.

For me, to be honest, fado, it's poetry that has some help of the instruments to make the words grow, so they can have the real... world.

Because every word has their own world to make you feel something.

[ Singing in Portuguese ] Sometimes, people ask me, "Oh, do you think this song is fado?"

I'll say, "Mm."

It's strange for me, and, at the same time, super simple, because when I listen, for example, Ella Fitzgerald, or Billie Holiday, or Piaf or [indistinct], for me, they were fado singers.

I know what you mean.

You know?

Mm-hmm.

It's music that is from here.

It's about stories of the streets.

It's about stories of everyone.

It's music that everyone understands.

So, for me, there's no limit.

It just has to make sense.

"Do these words make sense with this sound here?"

"Oh, yeah?

Okay.

Let's do it."

Can you recommend another fado-fusion artist?

Yes.

Stereossauro.

Tiago.

Tiago is a guy, really, from hip hop.

Hip hop, you can -- you can ask him whatever you want.

And he fall in love with fado, and he start doing these -- he start using samples of Portuguese guitar, and mixing.

And I think what he does is, um, super beautiful and respectful.

♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] We're driving in the car not by accident, right?

I was driving home from -- from work.

And I was listening to the radio.

They were playing "Verdes Anos" by Carlos Paredes, who's the greatest Portuguese guitar player, not only from fado music, but all genres, I think he's the greatest.

And I was listening to the song, and I was like... "Okay.

I can flip this sample like this and like that."

I just started with the guitar.

Then, "Okay, I need a drum loop."

One starting on the kick drum, and the other exactly drum loop, but starting on the snare.

So, if I hit one button, I know it's going to start on the kick drum, and play the loop once, like -- [ imitates ].

And the other on the snare.

So, when I -- when I play with the transpose, what happens is... [ Voice fades ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I didn't want to record it to have a definitive version.

I was like, no, if you want to hear this, you have to book me, and I will play it live for you, and it will not be the same as the other version.

I will freestyle something over it.

Because it was really fun to play it.

And I didn't have the copyrights for the sample.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] Being Portuguese, if you listen to that song, and you close your eyes, it somehow tells you that this is yours.

You can say it's the ocean.

You can say it's the saudade.

You can say it represents our people, even from the interior, from the mountains to the shoreline.

Every Portuguese person will give you a different answer, but everyone feels it.

Why do you love working with fado?

Where does this come from?

I've always liked music from everywhere around the world.

But at the same time, was struggling to find my own voice, or my own identity.

And... once I started experimenting with the fado samples, I immediately know that that was my path, and that it was the best way to express myself.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Hip hop is not an enclosed art form.

It started from grabbing pieces of other styles of music and combining it to make a new thing.

So, it's only natural that the new generations want to make a new thing also.

It doesn't invalidate what came before, but it will be ever-changing, for sure.

Would you consider fado to be folk music?

Yes, of course.

What does "folk music" mean to you?

A musicologist could give really detailed and complex answer, but, to me, it's like... music from the people to the people.

The feeling and the identity of a certain place is there.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Rapping in Portuguese ] [ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Rapping in Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Speaking Portuguese ] Are there any bigger wishes or hopes you have for your generation and the next generations coming up?

[ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Rapping in Portuguese ] Can you imagine that hip hop, one day, will be something like traditional Portuguese music?

[ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Rapping in Portuguese ] [ Speaking foreign language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ You work since a while.

We're not talking about age.

Yeah.

[ Both laugh ] Oh, I'm comfortable with that.

But you're making music since a while.

What I'd like to know is, um, how is your opinion how did the scene and the business change?

Oh, it changed a lot, because when I started in '89, I was in a punk folk band.

We hated people that played hip hop and funk and soul.

That was kind of cursed people.

You never spoke to them.

And heavy metal people, also.

So, that was... Nobody talked to anybody.

There was no crossing over in music in Portugal in the end of the '80s and the beginning of the '90s.

It was really strange.

But nowadays, it's much, much better because everybody realized that mixing up everything you can is the best way to go.

I think it's the best way to go.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I played in a ska band, I played in a reggae band, I've played in fados, and maybe now that I'm getting older, I realize that there's something less formal and more visceral in folk music because it kind of... You relate to it in a not -- in a non-intellectual way.

It's kind of part of yourself and your heritage.

What I'm trying to do is to incorporate some of those aspects of the folk music that I played and into something different.

♪♪ I don't have a style.

I just have a way of speaking or a way of playing that is more adequate according to the person I'm talking to.

Music is like a sort of a universal language, and you have different accents for the different situations that you are in.

So, I think the musical styles are like accents.

I pay a lot of attention to the way people say their things, the way they articulate their speech musically, because it's really different.

That's what makes the difference between all the musical styles.

None of them is better than the other, but they're all different, and but they're all special if the artist is true.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking foreign language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Laughter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in Portuguese ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Viva Mieze!

[ Cheers and applause ]